Hello all. I just got a baby dwarf boa and let it adjust for 2 weeks. it ate a fuzzy fine the first time i fed it. I handled him a bit around two days later to get him used to me, he’s pretty calm. so 10 days later i fed it a small hopper (not bigger than his biggest part) and no more than 24 hours later he regurgitated. His hot spot is 90F, humidity is 60%. Cold side is sitting at around 78F. Hes in a 4x2x2, usually always under his hot spot. He’s been yawning/stretching his jaws most of the day. I’m kind of freaking out right now because hes only like 3 months. I know not to feed him for 3 more weeks to let him rest. will he be ok? im really not sure what i did wrong. He acts fine, ate normally, etc. The mouse did pop when he constricted so did i not heat it properly? it was definitely thawed. Any help appreciated, i just really have no idea what went wrong, and i hope hes not sick. I got him from a reputable breeder
There is only a couple things I can suggest. I think you should dial back the heat to 85 or 86 degrees. And maybe feed every 2 weeks……
I asked in a few other places, and they said the heat is fine? Do you mean surface temp or ambient temp? I’ll definitely dial back the food though.
Surface temperature
Isn’t that too low for them to digest?
I am going to tag @tommccarthy on this. I kept my boas at 85 degrees surface temp which was recommended to me by 2 breeders. However I kept CA boas and a BRB. There has got to be a reason that yours regurgitated. So imho you fed too soon or something is wrong with your husbandry. Hopefully Tom or another boa expert will chime in here because I could be very wrong regarding temps for your type of boa……
Edit to add: In all the years I kept my boas none of them ever regurgitated a meal/had trouble digesting…. At 85 degree surface temperature……
@germondaline Just out of curiosity I looked up the first care sheet on the Tarahumara boa and actually the recommendations for temps are low to mid 80’s with a hot spot of 85 to 88 degrees.
I am not sure where you have gotten your information but I do believe you should dial down the temperature……
I got it from reptifiles. Double checking it now, I noticed my hot spot also got up to like 96 on occasion, so thats probably it. I sent a quick message to the breeder i got him from too, just to double check. I’ll definitely turn down the temperature as he doesn’t seem sick in any way else, and i have honestly no clue what else it could be. I haven’t had boas before but ive had other snakes that havent done this. I heard somewhere that Tarahumara like it cooler, but i also saw that BCI temps were fine for them and I swear i saw 94 surface somewhere.
Wouldn’t he also just move if it got too hot for him? He’s always on that hot branch. Although i guess if thats the only basking spot hes got little choice. I’ll dial back the temp until it’s around 87 on the hottest spot in that case.
Yep 87 imho would be perfect. I got my advice from Jeff Ronne owner of The Boaphile and high end boa breeder. He insisted that 85 hot side would be fine for mine.
I think when you adjust the temperature and wait a few weeks to feed again you should be fine……
Okay thank you. My breeder just responded and said nothing higher than 90. About 88 being max. I’m not sure why there’s people telling me that a hot spot of 95 is perfect then ugh. He acts normal in every other way so im starting to think it was my hot spot.
I would bet on it. I have never researched anything on repti files but if this is where you got your information I would stay clear of that site for anything else if I were you.
It’s definitely not too low for them to digest. Those boas are usually colder in the wild anyway. It’s also a BCC so you need to be careful with them regurgitating as you can create a real health issue and syndrome. So I would definitely dial back that temperature that 85-86 range for the hotspot. What is your cold side resting at anyway?
I agree with everyone that your temps may have caused the regurgitation. Just give your boa a few weeks off from feeding. Then, try a smaller than normal sized mouse or rat for the next 2 to 3 feeding. Or an African soft fur rat they seem to work well for picky eaters.
I feed my baby boa about every 10 to 14 days now.
My cold side now that ive lowered my temps reads 76-77F ambient temperature. I just figured he was okay since hes constantly on his warm side, and he’s on his hot spot right now. So I was always under the impression it wasn’t hot enough. Also i didnt know a tarahumara was BCC? I thought it was like BCI. A one time regurge won’t cause any health issues right? That’s the biggest thing I’m worried about. I even got some nutribac which I’ve heard helps snakes that have regurged for their gut for his next feed.
He eats well, and I definitely didn’t feed more than once every 10 days. I already ordered more fuzzy rats instead for those next few feedings before I give him another hopper.
Wait, Tarahumara mountain locality boas are BCC? But the Tarahumara region is in Mexico, and I thought BCCs were from South America. 
I keep my hatchling Tarahumara on fuzzy mice for longer than 3 months. They are a smaller dwarf locality and shouldn’t be pushed during their first couple years. I agree with the heat/hot spot of ~87F. I believe it was likely a combination of temperature and the bigger prey item. In my experience, most locality Boas do better with smaller prey.
Fuzzy rats are the size of hopper mice
You want fuzzy mice, not rats.
Tarahumara are Boa sigma not BCC.
Okay. I’ll be sure to feed him fuzzy mice for a bit longer. The hopper mice I got he swallowed down no problem, and they’re no bigger than his biggest part, so I thought it was fine. But just to be sure I’ll feed smaller for a little longer.
Lol sorry I made a mistake on that. They’re sigma.
Its likely a import as 99% of the tarahumaras listed on the website are just Central American imports, after all, tarahumaras are just central americans anyways that came from a group of friend sellers with a fancy story, you can just scale count they are just f1/f2/f3/f4 from wild cen ams (deeper the lineage the more “polygenic” of pattern, nobody’s ever shown import documents proving otherwise *ive raised over 100 " real tarahumaran" and about 30 or so central american imports for a little bit of reference, I still own and work with both.
We are in a day and age where people will make whole fake wiki articles or blog posts to sell you something, bear this in mind.
So, knowing its likely 99.99% an import, and its yawning alot, I would suspect you need to treat this animal as if it has everything, Panacur & Flagyl aka Metronidazole
Then, once you are done treating it for pests/parasites/worms, you would need to rebuild its gut biome, Use NutribacDF and you may have to assist feed one or two times to get the load in there, best to use about 7% of bodyweight for this feed, smaller and easier to digest. Nutribac restores the gut flora and gets em digesting properly.
During this entire time you need to have the cage warmer and dry, not cooler and wet, 88-92 Deg helps to boost the immune system of the animal and resist/fight off issues, cooler=death. Also, humidity needs to be relatively low as during treatment they are more prone to catching URIs , if they are lacking humidity you need to have a water dish with spaghum moss around it and let them choose when to go in for humidity, see them soaking a bunch? Check for mites or shedding. if no mites and appears not in shed, then your humidity’s low for them , bear in mind these are mexican boas , not rainforest boas.
Use a paper or fabric bath towel substrate to get the animal healed * STAY ON TOP OF CLEANING*
Another topic is going to be dusting rodents, If you are buying frozen food from large suppliers, they aren’t raised with top nutrition in mind but rather mass production and ROI, get some exo terra calcium+d3 and exo terra multivitamin, and start sprinkling your rats , its going to be relative to size, but once you get the animal on nutribac and vitamins, its going to be snapping out of the cage as soon as you open it for food, happy to eat. Also your method of thawing matters, thaw it properly like you would meat for yourself, from freezer to fridge to warm water bucket to snake
Im available for help any time here or on morphmarket with over 3 decades in boas & colubrids, my advice comes from real experience and whats worked for us. (next time check to see if we have neos/litters in as you wont have these issues with our animals )